Syrian army launches counter-strike in NorthThe Syrian army launched a counter-strike against rebels in the North on Sunday, in a bid to wrest back control of positions lost in recent days, a monitoring group said.

In the northwestern province of Edleb, much of which is now in rebel hands, the army used fighter jets to bombard Maaret al-Numan, captured by the Free Syrian Army earlier this week, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria banned Turkish passenger flights from its airspace Sunday in a retaliatory move, as its troops launched a counter-attack on rebels in the country’s north in a bid to regain lost ground.

The reprisal over Turkey’s confiscation of what Russia said was radar equipment being flown from Moscow to Damascus came despite a flurry of diplomacy intended to calm soaring tensions between the neighbours.

Insurgents of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkish province of Agri have blasted gas pipeline delivering 27 million cubic meters of gas from Iran daily. Reportedly 28 Turkish soldiers deployed in the area were wounded as a result and hospitalized.